Exchanges looking to follow Nasdaq's lead into electronic bond trading platforms only have a handful of targets available, leaving interested buyers two options: pay up or be left out of the potentially lucrative market.Nasdaq OMX Group struck a deal on Monday to purchase electronic Treasuries-trading platform eSpeed from BGC Partners Inc for $750 million in cash, providing the exchange operator an entry into one of the world's largest and most liquid cash markets.Robert Greifeld, Nasdaq's chief executive, called the deal a "true game changer" for the exchange's transaction business, noting that more than $500 billion is traded daily in the U.S. Treasury market.While Nasdaq's stock plummeted 13 percent Tuesday on the heels of the deal, while shares of interdealer broker ICAP , which owns the only other large, electronic U.S. Treasuries trading platform, jumped almost 7 percent, indicating there might be more deals to be done.
BGC Partners, Inc. (BGC) is a global brokerage company primarily servicing the wholesale financial markets, specializing in the brokering of a range of products, including fixed income securities, interest rate swaps, foreign exchange, equities, equity derivatives, credit derivatives, commercial real estate, property derivatives, commodities, futures and structured products. Shares of BGCP traded higher by 0.36% or $0.02/share to $5.53. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $3.11 and as high as $7.07. On average, 2135600 shares of BGCP exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 1175540.
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